Even in the dazzling midst of life, light is elusive. It might sometimes prove to be only the faint reflection sparkling on deep seas, or the glimmering of spirits fleeing earth, and not those fiery stars burning holes in the darkness of our sky. Mortality is the one surety, grief and struggle the corollary streams that flow under and around the living in endless reminder of the dark and cold. And yet, knowing this, we still seek whatever light is within view and embrace each other no matter how icy the rain, how daunting the rush of those rivers rolling us toward the vast sea that is the end of all things. In songs, poems, and in meditations, as much as in the serene and melancholy beauty of images that soothe the eye and heart, we remind ourselves that death and sorrow cannot take away what we treasure, not entirely or forever. The glints of light and life remain and quietly coax us back from the brink.